A simple and inexpensive colorimetric spectrometer for determining total cholesterol has been developed,comprising a diode laser as the light sourcoptical fibers for the light guide and a photodiode as the detector.The stabilty and performance of the new system was investigated by obtaining the calibration curve for stan-dard cholesterol solutions. The total cholesterol in humanserum was also measured by the analyzer and com-pared with the value obtained by a conventional spectrometer. The results showed that the developed spectrometer was useful for the determination of cholesterol levels. The visible diodelaser used in the study exhibited good spectroscopic and operational properties for colorimetric absorption spectrometry and could be a key component for the development of a simple and economical analyzer.